Why You Hate the Sound of Your Own Voice

if you've ever heard a recording of your. own voice and hated it. there's a reason why let's talk about. that hi i'm leanne from grand rapids. michigan. good mythical morning. good mythical morning today's episode is. brought to you by blue microphones the. microphone people who make. the mouse microphone that makes us sound. so soothing all right.

in the morning i'm soothing the people. with. my voice okay tomorrow is we're gonna do. this again. bring a friend a good mythical morning. we appreciate all the response that you. guys gave. last week on this inviting your friends. that the key to this. growing is you inviting people. to participate well isn't it just two. guys sitting at a card table. talking i mean what am i supposed to. watch. that but one of them has a soothing.

voice. and yeah in a way yeah that's all it is. but hopefully you can do a good job of. selling it say listen it may just seem. like this and maybe that's all it is but. it's great and it'll give us something. to talk about so bring them tomorrow. and then you'll have some you'll have. some common conversation to happen. today let's talk about voice recordings. played back to yourself. how you react to it now everybody has. had this experience or at least i think. a lot of people have. and my voice is so soothing that it. sounds soothing to me when i hear it. recorded so i don't know. no not even not even i'm just kidding.

everybody has had this experience at. some point where you listen to a. recording of your voice and you're like. ah i don't like the way i. sound it's like why do i sound like that. do i really sound like that. yeah right is that is that me. you know this could be home i hope not. home movies. because everybody makes home movies. right let's say cell phone movies we. kind of moved it into that realm i'd say. 1987 you mean all right a perfect. example. is your voicemail greeting.

i hate that you do your voicemail hey. this is. link you haven't reached me leave leave. your number and. and stuff and then you play it back it's. like wow i sound like an. idiot and then you do it five more times. you still sound like it and then. you realize that like people have. gathered around and they're watching you. and they're. looking at you like this like what an. idiot what an idiot that's why i got. james earl jones to do my greeting. really i'll need to call you sometime. yeah uh. i actually tried to do my voice mail.

greeting one time in the bathroom. of you wanted you wanted reverb no i was. when i was working for ibm i was in a. stall. sitting there and i decided it would be. a good time to do it and that was also. stupid. yeah because when i came out there was a. whole crowd of co-workers out there. looking at me like. what are you stupid you've reached link. i'm nowhere in particular right now i'm. not on the toilet. or anything like that so everybody. reverb i was trying to harness the. reverb to help my voice because.

i sound do i sound like that sounded. stupid when i played it i could have. done it at home like in the shower. at least so are you about to give us. comforting information. i've been doing that will make us feel. better about the fact. no it's gonna make you feel worse i've. been doing research. [Laughter]. i actually i went to the site uh mental. floss good site by the way they've got a. lot of stuff. that's your name makes you feel smart. okay and uh they had an article over. there. about why this is that when you hear. your voice in a recording you don't like.

it. okay i'm not going to tell you why i. just thought no i'm going to tell you. why okay. well first thing is enough it's enough. of a common experience that there's an. article about it. so that that that's at least the good. news that everyone experiences hating. their own voice in recorded format. well i think a a large percentage of. people do and that is because. when you talk to me link i hear. your voice waves your sound weights i'm. gonna get really.

scientific here sound waves leave your. mouth they go into the air they mouse. around in the air. and then my big ears catch them and grab. them and. suck them into my ears and then my ear. sends them to my brain that's. scientifically what happens okay so but. the only thing that i'm hearing when you. speak. is what's going through the air however. link please don't touch my ear when you. speak. you know you hear your voice in a number. of ways. you hear your voice going into the room. and then coming back into your ears.

but you also hear maybe even primarily. you hear it going through my head your. vocal cords vibrating and going. into the bones in your face and your jaw. and. in and the muscles in your neck and this. vibration kind of going directly to your. ears and your ear your ear bones. are picking those up and that's a very. bassy. warm almost muffled sound that mixes. with what you hear. on the outside and so in other words. your voice to use.

in comparison to the way it sounds in a. recording is very warm it's. gentle yeah i got an idea so what you're. saying is. if i cover my ears and talk i'm going to. hear the component of my voice. that you don't hear i'm going to do that. right now it sounds. it sounds very warm and it sounds very. muffled. but it sounds deep and i'm i'm actually. developing a new level of self-esteem. by listening to myself this way the. problem is that that's not a practical. thing to do. well i think if you really want to go.

into a conversation with confidence. i think the application is stuff your. fingers in your ears and then all of a. sudden you have a. higher degree of confidence that you. sound like. an awesome talker that's what i want to. be in life an. awesome talker but this got me to. thinking it doesn't make sense. that that you know that's the reason but. it got me to thinking i remember. this being something that i experienced. on a regular basis. but then over the years we've recorded. ourselves talking.

so much and watched back. most of it a matter of fact we're doing. it right now even it. it it continues and so you end up. hearing yourself so much coming through. speakers. that i think i've i have lost the. ability to really decipher the. difference between. my voice recorded and my voice spoken. yeah so it's kind of all blended. we've basically come to grips with what. our voices sound like to other people. because. we've been those other people in. playback yeah to us to a really high.

degree. but here's the deal i think that it's. had another completely different effect. on us. hearing ourselves over and over again. and i think that that my friend is that. we have changed. the way that we speak. well yeah i can't disagree with that i. definitely i mean even back when we were. you know doing the the vault episodes. where we showed. older versions of our videos and we went. back to some of our earlier earliest. videos we made. like when we were talking about velcro.

the first thing we thought was wow. i talked different like my voice was. higher and quieter and i think part of. it was just not knowing how to conduct. myself. on on camera didn't know how to hold. your arms but then. in terms of the voice inflection and and. the confidence and the power of it but. even beyond that the accent. i think we've well i think what you're. saying is that we've changed our accent. we've definitely changed off hearing. ourselves well and hating. now this is something that everybody. experiences i mean there are very few.

people on earth. who especially i would say 18. and younger people who are still. developing who. move into a place where everyone speaks. in a certain way and they don't change. it change the way they speak this i mean. this happened to me i was born in. georgia. i moved to california at a young age i. began talking like i was from california. but then. at age of six i moved hey man to north. carolina california now. and then within a couple of weeks and. moving into a place called. carolina i began talking like everybody.

i began talking like link. what's your name this mom's rut i didn't. talk like that once i moved to north. carolina i talked more like this. after a couple of months but this is. probably a little bit more exaggerated. than my voice was even higher i talked. like this. i really did i'm not exaggerating any. any way i talk like an. old country woman no. we had a very thick southern accent and. you if you look back at the experience. that we've had and that is growing up in. north carolina. going to school at nc state university.

graduated from nc state university. living. in the raleigh area fuquay of arena most. most of the time. there wasn't any regional influences on. us that would cause us to change the way. that we speak however we changed the way. that we talked. significantly and i want to get to the. bottom of it i want to get introspective. here. well first of all i don't hate southern. accents i definitely don't hate my own. southern accent. but i don't know maybe it just had to do. with. trying to reach a global audience.

i don't think that having a southern. accent means that you are stupid. but i think subconsciously there's a lot. of people out there. who who who equate a southern accent. with a lack of intelligence all those. you know. you sound backwoods you sound uneducated. you sound like you don't know. what you're talking about. and and it's it's unfortunate because. well i have that. and i've i've changed it like even when. you said north carolina.

north carolina you know so. why did why did we do it i think i think. to. to mitigate the stigma associated with. our southern accent to reach. more of a global audience don't think. we're stupid please. well and that's sad okay but i think. that's the truth well i i think it's. true. i don't think it's necessarily sad. because i do think that. having it first of all people out here. know for within. one sentence that we're from the south. even now yeah there's a lot of people.

like you guys don't have any accent a. lot of people in the south may think we. don't have any accent but when you come. out to a place like california they. immediately. know that we're not from around here and. that we're from the south. because we still do have somewhat of a. southern accent but. like whenever i see someone i say hi. yeah. exactly i don't say hi i've noticed that. ha. but i wave my hand like this my eyes get. big. hi i'm link. and they always say a link that's a dead. giveaway. but i don't think there's i don't think.

it's necessarily a negative thing. but i don't but i have made a conscious. decision for it not to go any further. and i have made a conscious decision are. you going to regress back into your. southern accent you mean maybe a little. bit. i think that's good i think we might. start talking we never talk like this. let's just let's talk like this. everywhere we go there's an advent you. know it. it it becomes a retro kind of a i just i. i'm just saying that. i think we got to a place where it's a. little bit of a universal way to speak. to people. but i don't want it to go any further.

and i want people to be able to pick up. on the southern accent i don't want to. lose that and i feel like the day it's. what makes us who we are i think the day. that they can't pick up on the southern. accent. is the day that we died on the inside. lane spin the wheel i'm going to let you. down. today died on the inside dot go ahead. and spin the wheel. which way do i spin it any way you want. to just do it do you do it clockwise or. counterclockwise. all right we're gonna end this episode. leave a comment below. and let us know have you heard yourself. on a recording. and how did you react yeah. here we go almost a blue shout out.

to denmark ladies and gentlemen mythical. beasts we want to give a special shout. out. to those of you in denmark today denmark. you are amazing. it rains in your land every other day. and there's always a brisk breeze. you only border one country and that one. country is. germany danish women your life. expectancy is 79 years old. you go girl but the main reason that. you're awesome denmark is the fact that.

you. are two english words put together den. which is like a place where we watch. television and mark which is a common. american name. you gotta make it about us huh.